The Man Who Does Them Shall Live

One of the churches in my back ground taught that God’s Law was done away. One of the excuses used was that if you try to keep the Law you must keep it all to be saved.

Galatians 3:10-11 “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.”

Of course it helps to read the next verse.

Galatians 3:12 “The law is not of faith, but, “The man who does them will live by them.””

What is not understood is the phrase “live by them”. That is taught as a negative statement. It is not. It is a positive statement.

Romans 10:5 “For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, “The one who does them will live by them.””

Moses said the Law is righteous. Then one who lives by the Law is not something that is negative. To add to that God told Israel to keep His Law.

Leviticus 18:5 “You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances; which if a man does, he shall live in them: I am Yahweh.”

Note the positive statements.

Deuteronomy 6:2-3 “That thou mightest fear Yahweh thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as Yahweh the God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.”

Nehemiah 9:13 “You came down also on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments”.

Deuteronomy 8:3 “He humbled you, and allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh does man live.”

Sound familiar? Christ said this as well. He quoted this verse and by doing so validated it.

Matthew 4:4 “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Luke 4:4 “And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”

Christ said it. Do you believe it? “Oh that was just for Israel.” True, but if there is one thing that all should have learned is that God’s Law has a predictable outcome. If obeyed, one will reap the blessings given by following it.

Romans 2:13-15 “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.”

If the Law was done away then why did Paul spend so much time talking about the Law of God and doing so in the present tense rather than past tense? Some have tried to say that the law he is talking about is the Law of Christ as if that makes it different.

Isaiah 43:11 “I, I am Yahweh; and beside me there is no savior.”

John 10:30 “I and my Father are one.”

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Pitting Christ and Yahweh God against each other is not a safe thing to do. If you don’t fully believe both, you don’t have either one.

1 John 2:22 “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.”

Disobedience to God’s Law has consequences.

Ezekiel 20:25 “Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances in which they should not live”.

See Deuteronomy 28 for a complete listing of the good blessings for obedience and the curses for ignoring God’s Law. Which one do you think is what you see in your life? Don’t forget there is personal sin and national sin.

Nehemiah 9:29 “And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, (which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.”

That is “live by them” as opposed to dying.

Proverbs 7:1-3 “My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.”

Of course today it is no longer necessary for one to write them on the table of one’s heart as that is the new covenant, Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 8:10 and Hebrews 10:16, God’s Law is written on the heart of those who are His. That is the New Covenant.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20a  “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love Yahweh thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days”.

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